06 December 2012

From the Cop side: It’s funny what jars
my memory these days. I had to attend
some training the other day for my new job. It was
targeted towards hospitals…which I have nothing to do with unless I have to see
a doctor or something. But the training
was about Active Shooters.

It was OK training…but for a semi retired
cop who used to train other cops how to do this stuff it was hard to stay awake
for 8 hours. Over 200 Power Point slides
and lots of talking…lots of talking...but not much action. Did I mention there was lots of talking and lots of Power Point slides?

But, somewhere in the fog around slide
#180 or 190, it jarred my memory of a copper call I went on many years
ago.

It was back in the 1980’s. This was before all the high speed toys cops
now have. No pepper spray, no taser, no
bean bags guns, and no hostage negotiators. Just cops with guns, sticks, hands and our ability
to talk and think.

The call:
I was working in a very quiet area of the county. I was the only officer on duty from our
agency. There was a county deputy who
covered the area down the street…and about a half a mile further was another
small department with one officer on duty.
Usually on a Sunday that was all you’d need. There were several other cops, deputies and
the Highway Patrol on covering the rest of the county….miles away.

Just down the street was what I called
the “insane asylum”. I swear it looked
like something you’d see in a Alfred Hitchcock movie from the 1950’s. A dark and dreary place. All the patients were very, very crazy and
usually locked in a room alone with lots of medication…and I suspect a few had been given a lobotomy or had shock therapy.

The loony bin had a policy if cops had to
take somebody inside, no weapons. This
was a good idea because I’m sure some of the patients could have easily eaten
one of us if they had the chance…then used our guns to shoot out the door and
escape.

However…some rules need to be bent or
broken in some cases.

The deputy who’s jurisdiction the loony
bin was in got a call:

Zebra 21, we’re getting a report of a patient with a
knife and a club in the “……” hospital.
Can you respond code 3 and I’ll see if we can get a cover.”

Zebra 21: “I’m a block away and I have CI
Roller Dude following me.” (we were parked bullshitting)

The deputy and I arrived and a few
minutes later the cop down the street showed up. We were thinking about what we had and the
deputy looked at me (since I’d been a cop a whole 5 years longer than he had been
at that time) and he asked: “should we go in with weapons?”

I looked at the deputy and said: “I’m not
going in there without my stick and .45.”
(at that time I was packing a Colt 1911A1 .45)

The other copper who showed up had about
one year of experience and had no idea what to do. I suggested that we have the dispatcher call
the loony bin before we went inside and tell them to lock all the other patients
up in their rooms...because we were coming in with weapons.

In a few minutes, we were advised by
dispatch that the loony bin folks had everybody locked in their rooms except the
nut job with the knife and club…who was barricaded in the kitchen.

So we went in with sticks and guns (in
our holsters) and proceeded towards the kitchen. We found one of the hospital psyche nurses
yelling at the guy with the knife and club.
As we entered the kitchen, we could see that the nut was a little guy,
but very amped up for some reason. He
was very upset. The nurse continued
screaming at the dude and she was starting to annoy me.

I told the nurse:”Mam, can you back out
now, we’re the cops and we’re here.” She
finally shut up, then I asked her why the guy was so upset.

About that time, the crazy dude said he
was going to stab us all, so we pointed our guns at him and he backed into the
corner and shut up.

Since the nurse wasn’t helping, I
suggested to the deputy that he talk to the crazy guy and see what he’s so
upset about.

He wanted another glass of orange
juice. The nurse told him he couldn't have anymore. So, he broke off a table
leg (for a club) and got into the cooking area and grabbed a big ass butcher
knife.

I asked the nurse if he could have
another glass of OJ. She said “NO.”

I looked at the deputy and said: “damn it’s
shame we’re going to have to shoot this guy over a glass of orange juice.”

The nurse got pissed off…but the nut
heard what I said and threw down his knife and club.

Problem taken care of and nobody
hurt.

….and the bitch nurse made a complaint
because we entered the nut hospital with our weapons.

This many people came here by mistake

Great Quotes in History---

"Some of us were put here to help others....I'm not sure what some of those Others were put here for."

“The US Army usually gets things right….but only after screwing things up a few times to get there.”

"Don't do anything half-ass...if you're going to be a screw up, do it right and do it all ass!"-Some First Sergeant in Iraq“His career choice is to be a martyr. Let’shelp him meet those objectives before he can do any harm to our guys.”

"US ARMY: Breaking things and hurting people since 1775"Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology"Men. We're going into Fallujah today...so I want you to eat a full breakfast-everything, eggs, bacon, coffee, oatmeal, toast, milk, eat as much as you can. Because...you can't shit your pants in fear on an empty stomach."- CI Roller Dude in Dec 04.

OIF 3: "The cost of Freedom is HIGH! (About $1million per trooper per year)

SFOR 14-, the second to last season... "Stupidity got us into this mess....why can't it get us out?" Grenades: when throwing up stairs or up hill, gravity is your enemy.

Remember: "The Cops are only 6 minutes away---when you need them in 30 seconds."

“Never before in the history of mankind, have so few done so much for so many who didn’t give a shit”-CI Roller Baghdad, Iraq 2005.

Remember...half the people you know are below average!

Life is tough...it's tougher if you're stupid!

Never before in the history of mankind have so few done so much with no leadership, whilst so many did so little and still got paid~ SFOR 14, Bosnia 2003-04